Welcome home
The San Diego Padres are a completely different team when playing at Petco Park than on the road, and they showed that off when they returned from their road trip last night to stomp the A's.
The San Diego Padres have been a .500 team on the road this season, and they continued that trend of mediocrity over the weekend when they split a series with the lowly Miami Marlins, but then they returned to Petco Park last night and reminded us of how terrorizing they can be when they’re right.
Despite facing a really good starting pitcher, the Padres spent most of the game with guys on base and did an excellent job of knocking them in when they had the chance, including a 2-run HR from Tatis and a 3-run HR from Machado.
The Padres now have the third best home record in the National League trailing only, you guessed it, the Giants and the Dodgers. Speaking of, after the Giants topped the Dodgers last night, the Padres trail their foes from L.A. by just 2.5 games.
A quick check on our MVP
Did you see where that ball landed? I’ve watched a lot of baseball at Petco Park. I’ve only seen something like this done one other time, and that was at the Home Run Derby in 2016. And the only player who could do it, despite the slow pitching and the extra bouncy balls, was the uber-strong Giancarlo Stanton.
As expected, the all-star break was good for Tatis, who needed a little break to get his energy back. Now that the schedule has slowed a bit, it seems like he’s found his MVP form once again.
Over the last full year, Tatis has played in 139 games. That’s probably a good estimate for the number of games he’ll play in any full season, so let’s see what his numbers look like over that time.
.285 BA
.369 OBP
48 HRs
111 RBIs
33 SB (only 6 CS!)
Considering the position he plays, those are definitely MVP-like numbers. And I expect him to finish with numbers better than that in the 2021 season, even though he’s playing with a shoulder injury that will require surgery.
Oh captain, my captain
There are few things more entertaining than an at-bat when Manny Machado knows he has the pitcher’s number. When the A’s brought in Yusmeiro Petit to face Machado with two guys on in the bottom of the 5th, you could see a smile creep across his face. He knew.
This at-bat was funny. Pitch 1 was hit about 400 feet down the left-field line. Pitch 3 was a screaming line-drive to almost the same spot. It was almost like Manny was a little too excited and needed to remind himself that Petit couldn’t throw even 90mph.
Once he did that, sitting back on a 1-2 fastball up in the zone, the game was pretty much over.
Hosmer the clown
Look at this moron:
I disagree with Hosmer here. This was an easy question from the Union-Tribune’s Jeff Sanders. Here, let me write Eric a script for the next time he’s faced with this, because Jeff was fishing for a specific quote.
I would, of course, be disappointed if I were moved. I love this team, I love these guys, and I’ve really loved my time in San Diego. But I also understand that it’s a business and the front office has to do what they have to do to get this team ready to go deep in the playoffs. I hope I get to be a part of it.
Was that so hard?
It’s obvious that Hosmer, who has spent most of the last five years bumping up against people that believe in the same analytics that reveal that he’s not actually a good player, is having a rough go of it this week. And I get that!
For one, he’s spent his whole life up until recent memory being told that he’s actually great. Now he’s being told he’s not great but he hasn’t changed a thing? That’s frustrating. Then, the same team that paid him a huge contract to be their team leader now wants him gone? Not to mention all the flak he took after being outed as being against the Covid vaccine. It’s been a frustrating year for Hos.
Speaking of Hosmer…
The Padres decided against the most logical alignment with Adam Frazier on the roster last night, which is playing him at 2B and Jake Cronenworth at 1B. Instead, they put Adam Frazier out of position in left field and moved Tommy Pham out of position in right field and put Wil Myers on the bench.
Did it work out? Kind of! The offense was humming, Pham and Frazier both missed plays in the OF but nothing disastrous, and Wil Myers got a pinch-hit single off the bench. Also, Hosmer’s defense was pretty good!
Hosmer also went 1-3 with a walk. That seems good! Until you realize that one hit was a single to center that he tried to stretch into a double (I guess because he saw Tatis do it earlier and wanted to prove that he’s better than him?) and was easily gunned down at second base.
With the spotlight on him, and a chance to prove his worth, Eric Hosmer was once again the weak link in this Padres lineup. If anything, it only proved more why San Diego has been shopping him around to other teams.